Regulator valves



Sept 3U, 1958 s. L. HAMMON 2,854,207

REGULATOR VALVES Filed June 18, 1956 INVENToR, e0/"7 Ham/770.

llnited States Patent @s REGULATOR VALVES George L. Hammon, Oakland, Calif.

Application .lune 18, 1956, Serial No. 592,059

1 Claim. (Cl. 251-64) The present invention concerns gas pressure regulators, and more particularly concerns an improved valve mechanism for connecting a high pressure chamber to a low pressure chamber in such a regulator.

A gas pressure regulator is employed for receiving gas from a high pressure source, such as a cylinder of compressed oxygen, and expanding the compressed gas in a regulated manner to reduce its pressure to a working level. The expansion may be performed in one or more steps, usually designated stages, the number of stages being determined largely by the quality of regulation desired and by the diiierence between source pressure and working pressure. 'I he present invention is described, for the sake of simplicity, in the environment of a singlestage regulator, but it is equally applicable to multiplestage regulators.

Regulators may be classified further as preset or adjustable. The preset regulator, as its name implies, is preadjusted for any given installation to effect a constant, selected reduction of gas pressure. The adjustable regulator, on the other hand, is adapted for convenient manual adjustment to e'ect any desired reduction of gas pressure within its operating range. Again, for simplicity, the present invention is described in the environment of a preset regulator, although it is equally useful in an adjustable regulator.

In reducing the pressure of a gas in any stage of a regulator, the gas is ordinarily passed through a valve cylinder which cooperates with a piston within the cylinder to form passages along the inner cylinder wall. The seating area of the piston at an outlet end of the cylinder forms a variable opening through which controlled quantities of the gas may be transferred from a relatively high pressure chamber into a relatively low pressure chamber. The regulating mechanism automatically moves the piston in either of two directions to con trol the quantity of gas which ows through the opening at the valve seat, and thereby regulates the output gas pressure.

In order to provide smooth regulation of the gas flow, the valve piston should bear rmly against the inner wall of the valve cylinder, but it should be adapted for free sliding action along the cylinder. It the piston does not bear firmly against the cylinder wall, it is subject to lateral vibratory movement, often of a resonant nature, within the cylinder, and the gas flow through the cylinder is consequently not smooth. On the other hand, if the piston is made to bear rmly against the cylinder wall by heavy pressures, for example such as provided by extremely close tolerances, the necessary freedom of sliding action is sacrificed, and the piston tends to stick and then jump from one longitudinal position to another with consequent fluctuations and hunting of the outlet pressure.

Numerous attempts have been made to devise a valve piston with the desirable, but mutually antagonistic qualities of rm bearing and free sliding. For example, in my U. S. Patent No. 2,597,478, there is disclosed and claimed a valve piston which employs respective polygonal collars on opposite ends of the pisto-n. The corners of the polygons form edges across the width of the collars, and these edges bear against the inner cylinder wall in sliding contact therewith. It is obvious that the respective ra- 2,554,257 Patented Sept. 30, 1958 ine dial dimensions of the collar edges and inner cylinder Wall must be extremely precise in order to achieve smooth operation of the piston.

Since the manufacturing precision which, unaided, would produce the desirable sliding action is impractically expensive, the collar edges in this device are deliberately made with some clearance from the cylinder wall. The open or inlet end of the piston is slotted for some distance in a direction parallel to the piston axis, and is then able to be sprung outwardly or inwardly in order to increase or decrease, respectively, the pressure with which the inlet-end collar edges bear against the cylinder wall.

This arrangement has been found to have two principal defects, viz: (l) adjustment of the collar spread on the slotted end of the piston is time-consuming and awkward because each adjustment is a matter of guesswork and the regulator must be taken apart to perform the adjustment; and (2) the collar edges on the unslotted end of the piston are not adjustable and must be made with some clearance; therefore the unslotted, or seat end of the piston is subject to the previously-mentioned lateral vibratory motion, or chatter which militates against smooth regulation.

It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to substantially eliminate lateral vibratory motion of the piston in a regulator valve.

Another object of the invention is to t a piston into a regulator valve rmly but adapted lfor free sliding motion.

A further object of the invention is to provide a relatively long bearing surface between the inner cylinder wall of a regulator valve sleeve and portions of a valve piston within said sleeve.

Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side View, mostly in section, of a single-stage preset regulator embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an oblique view of the valve piston;

Fig. 3 is a side view, in section, of the valve assembly; and

Fig. 4 is an end view of the Valve section.

General description Referring to Fig. l, the regulator in which the present invention is illustrated comprises a housing lll including a presetting section l1 and a valve section l2. T he two sections of the housing are threaded at 13 for mutual engagement, to form a hollow shell. This shell is divided internally into respective presetting and valve sections, or compartments, by a diaphragm i4 which abuts directly against a flange l5 on the inner surface of the presetting section ll of the housing, and abuts, through a gasket 16, against a frange 17 on the face of the valve section 12 of the housing.

Diaphragm i4 is maintained in an equilibrium position by 'forces exerted on its opposite sides from the respective presetting and valve compartments of the regulator and, in turn, controls mechanism in the valve compartment to regulate the gas ow, as described hereinafter.

Presetting section Mechanism in the presetting section of the regulator is employed to exert force on one side of diaphragm 14- to balance the force exerted by gas on the opposite side of the diaphragm. The previously-described section 1l of housing 10 has a hole 21 drilled through one end. Hole 21 is continued by a larger tapped recess 22 in the inner surface of housing section 1l. The face of recess 22, extending radially outward from the limits of hole 1l, forms an annular shoulder 23 for limiting the movement of an adjusting screw 24 which is threaded into recess 22. 1

V 3 'The outer end-of 'a bearing member 25 abuts the inner face of the adjusting Iscrew 24. A stub shaft 2-6 on the inner end of bearing member 25 supports one end of a diaphragm spring 31. The 'other end of the diaphragm spring fis supported by a second stub shaift 3'?. fo'rnred (not shown) shaped to receive any appropriate key, 'such as an Allen Wrench, which is 'inserted through hole 21'in the housing. By presettng spring 31 Vto Vthe desired tension, the fo'rc'e exerted jon the 'diaphragm v14' 'is 'set to prf-,determine the 4force which must be exerted by the gas on the opposite 'side of the diaphragm 'in 'the valve Compartment in order Ato maintain 'a state of equilibrium.

Valve section The valve section 'of the regulator includes an Ainlet 41 which is connected by an inlet `duct 42 to a high-y pressure chamber 43,V and includes an Vexpansion chamber 44`connected by a second duct 45 to lan outlet 46. VThe inlet 41 is adapted to be attached 'to a source o'f highpressure gas, suchras a cylinder ofcompressed oxygen. A valve mechanism, shown generally at `60 in Fig. 1 cooperates with the previously-described diaphragm V14 to permit a controlled flow of gas from -the high-pressure chamber 43 to the expansion chamber 44 whereth'e 'gas is expanded to the 'desired 'working pressure. The Texpanded gas is then fed through duct 45 to 'the 'working outlet 46. l

The valve mechanism 60 includes 'a cylindricalsleeve 61 (see also Fig. 3) having its outer surface 'threaded to t an opening 47 which separates the high-.pressure chamber 43 from the expansion chamber 44. Sleeve l61 has a Cylindrical head portion 62 of larger diameter than the threaded portion to form a shoulder which abu'ts hole 63 to the high-pressure chamber 43.

A piston 71 is fitted into the recess 64 iny sleeve 61 and has a face ,portion 72 which seats against a-n inner valve seat ridge surrounding hole 63. When piston 71 is seated tightly, it closes hole 63 and no gas can dow from the high-pressure chamber 43 `to the expansion chamber 44. On the other hand,l when the piston is not seated, gas Vllows from the high-pressure chamber through a nozzle comprising the space separating the seating face of piston 71 and the. valve'sea't ridge of sleeve 61. From the nozzle, the gas ows through =hole 63 into the expansion chamber.

A pin 73 in the fa e ,portion of piston 71 cooperates with an actuating pin 35 which is integral with a pin base 36, the latter being rigidly connected to the diaphragm 14. When the force exerted on the 'diaphragm by spring 31 is greater than the force exerted on the opposite side of the diaphragm by the gas in the expansion chamber 44, the /center portion of the diaphragmV is bent toward the Vright (as veiwed in Fig. l), carrying base 36 and pin 35 with it, and thereby moving pin 73 and piston 71 to the right to open hole 63. On the other hand, when the lforce exerted by the gas in chamber -44 exceeds Vthe force of spring 31, the center of diaphragm 14 is restored toward its normal position, Vcarrying pin 35 out of engagement with pin 73.` In the latter case, piston 71 is moved back toward its seating position by the action of a piston spring 65, one end of which `engages engages 'a recess e74 Ain 'the piston through a 4spring button 67.

Referringito Fig. 3, the pin 73 in the seating face of piston 71 is embedded in packing material 75 whichl is formed preferably of nylon or 'other non-metallic m-aterial. The packing` 75 is 'supported 'by a thin annular wall 76 Vwhich constitutes an extension of the main piston body. The `seat end of Wall l76 -is rolled Y"inwardly to retain Vthe packing 75 in utheupositioli shown.

A pair of annular collars 77 and 78 near the respective ends of the piston r'('see also Figs. 2 and 4) are integral with the piston body and are polygonally shaped to form edges VY871 fand iats 82. )ridges `81V are lat a radial distance. irm the longitudinal axis of piston :71 such that they form a sliding t with vthe inner wallof the valve sleeve 61. The piston `body 'is preferablyrtu'rned from hexagonal Stock, thereby providing -six edges A81 and v six ats` 82, although numerous other collar vshapes may be employed 'within the scope lof the present invention.

Alternate and 'corresponding flats 820i the twocollars 77 and l78 arel drilled radially inwardly to receive the ends of respective Wires '83. The portion of veach wire 83 `which extends between the holes drilled in yits corresponding dats is Yslightly longer than the linear .separation between the holes, and each wire 83 is therefore slightly bowed to Tform a spring. When piston 71 inserted `into the valve 'sleeve 61, 'springs 83 bear against the inner wall of the sleeve for a' longitudinal distance which 'substantially 'equals the linear separation of 'the holes in corresponding dats 82 of collars 77 and V'78.` This bearing spring arrangement has been found to ypro-` from the three Ashown in the accompanying drawings by way o'f illustration.

VvThe means for adjusting the diaphragm spring 3-1 (Fig. 1)' eomprising the internally adjustable screw 524 is claimed in my Vcio-.pending continuing-in-part application `'Serial No. 723,328, liled March 24,1958.

I claim.:

VA regulator valve comprising a sleeve member V*having a head at one end, said head being provided with a bore, and said sleeve member having a longitudinal cylindrically-walled recess atthe other end, said recess extending to the head end to form a seat extending around said bore; a piston having a cylindrical body -for cooperation with said seat, said body having respective annular` polygonal collars adjacent the ends thereof, each collar lhaving a plurality of edges and a plurality of flats, the edges of said collars providing contact with the wall of said recess, certain corresponding ats on said collars being provided with respective holes extending radially inwardly from said iiats, and ka respective References 'Cited in the iile of 'this patent UNITED Y STATES PATENTS V2,232,018 Wright Feb. 18, .1941

Hammon May 20, 1952 

